Conventionally, as a sort of apparatus, there has been known a vehicle air conditioning apparatus that includes: a compressor configured to compress and discharge a refrigerant; a radiator provided in the vehicle interior and configured to release the heat from the refrigerant; a heat exchanger provided in the vehicle interior and configured to absorb the heat into the refrigerant and an outdoor heat exchanger provided outside the vehicle interior and configured to release the heat from or absorb the heat into the refrigerant (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
It has been known that the vehicle air conditioning apparatus performs a cooling operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the outdoor heat exchanger and by absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the heat exchanger; a cooling and dehumidifying operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and the outdoor heat exchanger and by absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the heat exchanger; a heating operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and by absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the outdoor heat exchanger; and a heating and dehumidifying operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and by absorbing the heat into part of the refrigerant in the heat exchanger while absorbing the heat into the remaining refrigerant in the outdoor heat exchanger.
In addition, conventionally, it has been known that this sort of vehicle air conditioning apparatus includes a compressor driven by an engine as a power source of a vehicle; a radiator provided outside the vehicle interior; and a heat exchanger provided inside the vehicle interior. With this vehicle air conditioning apparatus, a cooling operation is performed by: releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator; absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the heat exchanger; and supplying the air after a heat exchange with the refrigerant in the heat exchanger, to the vehicle interior. In addition, such a conventional vehicle air conditioning apparatus includes a heater core and performs a heating operation by: releasing the exhaust heat from the cooling water used to cool the engine in the heater core; and blowing the air after a heat exchange with the cooling water in the heater core, to the vehicle interior. Moreover, such a conventional vehicle air conditioning apparatus performs a heating and dehumidifying operation by: cooling the air to be supplied to the vehicle interior to a required absolute humidity in the heat exchanger for dehumidification; heating the cooled and dehumidified air to a desired temperature in the heater core; and blowing the heated air to the vehicle interior.
The above-mentioned vehicle air conditioning apparatus uses the exhaust heat from the engine as a heat source to heat the air during a heating operation and a heating and dehumidifying operation. Generally, an electric car uses an electric motor as a power source, and it is difficult to acquire the exhaust heat that can heat the air by using the electric motor without an engine. Therefore, the above-mentioned vehicle air conditioning apparatus is not applicable to electric cars.
To address this issue, there has been known a vehicle air conditioning apparatus as applicable to electric cars. The vehicle air conditioning apparatus includes: a compressor configured to compress and discharge a refrigerant; a radiator provided in the vehicle interior and configure to release the heat from a refrigerant; a heat exchanger provided in the vehicle interior and configured to absorb the heat into the refrigerant; and an outdoor heat exchanger provided outside the vehicle interior and configured to release the heat from or absorb the heat into the refrigerant. This vehicle air conditioning apparatus performs: a heating operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the outdoor heat exchanger; a heating and dehumidifying operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger, or at least in the heat exchanger; a cooling operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the outdoor heat exchanger and absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the heat exchanger; and a cooling and dehumidifying operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and the outdoor heat exchanger and absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the heat exchanger (see, for example, Patent Literature 2).
Moreover, conventionally, as a sort of apparatus, there has been known a vehicle air conditioning apparatus that includes a compressor configured to compress and discharge refrigerant; a radiator provided in the vehicle interior and configured to release the heat from the refrigerant; a heat exchanger provided in the vehicle interior and configured to absorb the heat into the refrigerant; and an outdoor heat exchanger provided outside the vehicle interior and configured to release the heat from or absorb the heat into the refrigerant (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
In addition, there has been known a vehicle air conditioning apparatus that performs a heating operation by releasing the heat from a refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and absorbing the heat into the refrigerant in the outdoor heat exchanger; and a heating and dehumidifying operation by releasing the heat from the refrigerant discharged from the compressor in the radiator and absorbing the heat into part of the refrigerant in the heat exchanger while absorbing the heat into the remaining refrigerant in the outdoor heat exchanger.